Kyle Busch Adds To XFINITY Win Pile; Title Battle Tightens

The XFINITY championship will be Chris Buescher’s to lose next weekend in Homestead. (RacinToday/HHP file photo by Gregg Ellman)

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Kyle Busch added to his XFINITY Series career victory total Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway and the race for the series championship tightened up just a bit.

The victory for Busch was his 76th in the series. He led 190 of 200 laps.

“You can’t take any of these wins for granted,” Busch, who is seeking a berth in the Sprint Cup Chase finale, said. “We had fun and enjoy what we’re doing right now. It will help us a little bit for tomorrow (in the Cup race), I learned a few things so I’m looking forward to using that.”

Points-leader Chris Buescher finished 13th.

The two drivers closest to him in points – Chase Elliott and Ty Dillon – finished seventh and fifth respectively, however.

Buescher will head to Homestead-Miami Speedway next weekend for the season finale with an 18-point lead over Elliott (down from 24) and a 22-point lead over Dillon.

“That’s not a good day, it’s an OK day,” he said. “The team worked really hard to get this AdvoCare Mustang fast and we were good for a short run, but after that it just went away in a hurry. It’s just tough. We never really run good here at Phoenix. I thought this was the best car we’ve had and it probably was overall, but something about this place doesn’t work for us very well. On the points side of things, this was a good day. We’ll be able to go into Homestead and if we pretty much stay out of trouble be able to wrap this thing up.”

Fellows Cup regular Brad Keselowski finished second to Busch but over 3 seconds behind. He was asked what he needed to compete with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Busch.

“A lot more of everything, but we had a great effort,” the Team Penske driver said. “We had a great day on pit road. The guys on the pit crew did a great job there. We gained spots, so that was really cool and real fun, but we just needed a lot more speed to run with the 54. Either way, it was a pretty solid day.”